After a gorgeous day one of tennis on the campus of Gustavus Adolphus College, the round of 16 in both the singles and doubles portions of the USTA/ITA Midwest Regional are set.
Four of the top eight seeds in singles play were bounced in day one. Top seeds moving on to the round of 16 in the winners bracket include Gustavus’ Amrik Donkena (#1), UW-Eau Claire’s Chris Kuna (#2), and Carthage’s Jeff Lotz (#7) and Daneric Hazelman (#8).
No. 1 overall seed Amrik Donkena advance after picking up a pair of wins over UW-Whitewater’s Bray Porter (6-2, 6-1) and St. Olaf’s Knute Gundersen (6-2, 6-1). Donkena will face Victor Khristenko Coe tomorrow in the quarterfinals of the top half of the bracket.
Grant Leisner turned in the surprise performance of the opening day. Leisner won three straight matches to advance to the round of 16, upsetting No. 3 seed Nick Garcia of Dubuque 7-6, 6-2 in the second round before taking down Michael Cole of Grinnell 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) in the third round. He will look to keep the momentum going into tomorrow when he takes on David Croonquist of Hamline.
Tyler Johnson also recorded a day one upset over No. 8 Daneric Hazelman of Carthage to advance. Johnson cruised in his first two matches before edging Hazelman 6-4, 7-5. Johnson will play UW-Whitewater’s Byron Balkin tomorrow.
Mya Smith-Dennis is Gustavus’ other individual still alive on the winners side. Smith-Dennis bounced back from an opening set loss to defeat No. 6 seed Nick Piotrowski of UW-La Crosse 2-6, 7-5, 10-7. He will take on Ramesh Karki of Luther tomorrow morning.
The doubles bracket was a different story with only one of the top eight seeds falling in the first day. Gustavus’ Brooks Stapleton and Ryan Hallsten defeated No. 7 seeded Andrew Bayliss and Andy McGlashen to advance to the round of 16. Gustavus makes up six of the remaining 16 teams in the doubles bracket.
The USTA/ITA Midwest Regional will resume tomorrow morning with singles play beginning at 9:00 a.m.